Andy & Ari On3 - Indiana DESTROYS Alabama in the Rose Bowl | IU Hoosiers ADVANCE in the College Football Playoff

Episode Date: January 2, 2026

Join Andy & Ari LIVE to breakdown the Rose Bowl between Alabama and Indiana. Who will face Oregon in the Peach Bowl next week in the semi-finals? Find out here as Andy & Ari recap the Grandaddy of Them All. This show is presented by Modelo! Some things in life are just made for each other. Peanut Butter and jelly. Macaroni and cheese. Modelo and college football. If you’re watching this, it means you live and breathe football. All season long. You know what that makes you? A Full-Time Fan. Which means you deserve a Modelo. Because football wouldn’t be the same without you. Modelo is the official beer sponsor of The College Football Playoff. Drink responsibly. Beer imported by Crown Imports, Chicago, IL Our show is also presented by BetMGM! If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works: 1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB.2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game.3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sureyou use bonus code CFB when you sign up! Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary. See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Join On3 today and get one full year of access to The Athletic included! https://www.on3.com/subscribe/C Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

on tonight's college football playoff instant reaction show presented by medello yeah we're going live with about oh i don't know two thirds of the fourth quarter remaining in an alabama game but that's that's how good indiana is indiana is creating a snuff film in pasadena and i'm not sure anybody wants to watch the rest of that so come join me and r and we will discuss what it all means as the hosiers finish crushing the crimson tide right now us on our instant reaction show, Andy and Ari on 3, presented by Madelo.

Welcome to Andy and Ari on 3 presented by Madelo, your instant reaction show, through the Rose Bowl, which is still going on. It's currently 38 to 3, Indiana. This is an ass kicking of epic proportions. I don't remember the last time I saw an Alabama team get beat like this, Ari.

It was pre-Nic Sabin because even though he lost Louisiana Monroe and had some bad losses, his first year, he never lost like this. Watching the entire country catch up to what Indiana is in real time has been quite something. You know, I had a few friends that, you know, are close to me in my life that are Alabama fans who texted me. Is this a fireable offense for Kalin DeBoer because they view this as still, getting your doors blown off by old Indiana. People can't fathom this. Yeah. They cannot fathom how good.

Nick Sabin tried to tell you on game day when he was talking about, you know, playing golf with his buddies and saying, guys, this team is probably better than Alabama. And they're like, they can't be. It's Indiana. It can't possibly be. This is one of those that were people who aren't paying attention

who don't watch the games every week, look at the helmets and cannot comprehend this. no uh and you know the thing that i know that like college game day is a bit to a certain extent and that like he's always going to pick bama but like nick save it is the consummate football mind he knew what was going to happen here today um and i'm actually like really proud of us because you know we do get a lot of things wrong um but if you go back and you watch our preview video of this game it was very easy and it was almost tempting to give in to the urge to say, well, Alabama still has really good players and they are Alabama and to give into that

mystique. And there's a quote, Andy, that stands out to me from earlier in the week when somebody asked Indiana head coach Kurt Signetti a question. They said, what do you tell your players or how much do your players buy into what Alabama has been, the conglomerate that it is, the machine that it's been? And Kurt Signetti said, you, the media probably know more about the mystique than our players do. Our guys just know what they see on tape. And he said it in a way. way that Kurt Signetti says everything, which is matter of fact and grumpy, but in the most glorious way, but basically what he's saying is, is the mystique doesn't matter. We're watching the game tape and we know we have these guys. And like, that's what the truth is, is that

this, there isn't a call. There isn't a moment, you know, although I do think that going for it on fourth and short from inside your own 35 early in the game, the way they did was kind of weird. But I don't know if that matter. Can we talk about that? Can we talk about that? That was the kind of grab ass okay you want to go for it on fourth and short on your own 35 great then line up with two tight ends maybe an extra offensive linemen in there snap the damn ball and try to gain a yard you don't have to do all the crap they did like they didn't just go for it on fourth down by the way when they finally snap the ball they ran wide which is incredibly stupid yeah they they lined up in a in a punt formation with tie simpson as a personal protector so

ty simpson's out there as a personal protector for the punter and all the indiana players are just pointing at him and then it's like oh it's it's this and tie simpson walks up to the center and does the they call it's called a freeze play which is when you do the hard count over and over again hoping the defense will jump the least penalized defense in the big 10 i think maybe the country are you freaking kidding me the look on kurt signetti's face was like enough of this bullshit already. Just run a play so we can stuff you and continue beating your ass.

Yeah, that face. I think we have the picture here somewhere, but like that was like, you know, if you put that on a DVD from 1995 or whatever, 2005, whenever DVDs were there, and the movie was just called Kurt, it would be a horror film. Like this guy,

when you look at him on the sideline, and even right now, I'm watching the game over here on my iPad. They zoom in on him. He has murder in his soul. and his eyes. Like, this guy doesn't want to win games. He wants to end his opponent's life. He must eat

your soul. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like the way you put it at the beginning in the intro, I think it's true. This isn't a football game. This is a sacrifice or a, you know, a sacrifice. Yeah. I think I know what that is, but if it is what it is, that's a wild thing to say.

If you don't want to know, if you don't already know, I'm not going to tell you. I think I know what it is. But Andy, it's like this is like a sacrifice to the college football gods to like cleanse everyone's soul of preconceived notion yes oh there it is that's the look that's the look when tie simpson is on about second 15 of hot hot white 80 hot hot and curt sign he's like come on come on i am i have i'm gonna just practice this in the mirror ari i want to use this with my kids like The second they say something outrageous, like, hey, dad, can we do this?

Or, hey, dad, I've been doing, I've been crunching the numbers, and I think we can, you should give me the money for this. Like, I just want to bust out the signity face. It's the right mix of anger, dismissal, that's disgust, patient, and disgust. Yeah. Andy, Alabama was driving there, and they just turned it over on. downs deep in Indiana territory. So Indiana will get the ball back.

They are winning 38 to 3 with about six minutes left. I have 42 and a half in the under. So I'm going to sweat this out here with you guys. But, you know, hey, I think that was bad at math. The combined score now is 41. Yes. No more points in this game. And hopefully they'll just, you know, for Mando Mendoza is no longer even in the game.

So let's just, you know, not get two. But how many people have tweeted? I can't believe they left Mendoza in the game because they don't realize his brother's the backup. Yeah, it does look just like him. And the only reason why I can tell the difference is because the face masks are different. But Andy, I know that we've talked about this and I know we've said it. How did he do this? Like, it doesn't make any sense. It's amazing. He has, he has like taken it. And like, I know that we talk about preconceived notions when it comes to helmets and I know that like we like to poke fun of people who just assumed Indiana was mid because

they're Indiana but when you actually zoom out and and recognize this is Indiana and two years ago they were like 120th in every single statistical category in college football how did he get a team that could physically manhandle Bama I know bama like listen we we know and we have known that Alabama isn't peak Alabama but they still have really talented players and Indiana is beating the ever-loving crap out of them at every position across the field for four quarters. What kind of sorcery did this man do? This has got to be the most impressive coaching clinic I've ever seen in any sport. I don't know because it's not like, okay, I covered the Texas Tech game earlier today.

Texas Tech had a billionaire helped them buy really good players in the transfer portal. Kurt Signetti brought the best players from his old team, which was James Madison. And most of those players hit. The best of them are really good. They're going to be really good NFL players. But the idea that they would just dominate the Big Ten and then dominate in the college football playoff. I mean, it's amazing.

He got the quarterback from Cal. It wasn't like, look, people knew Fernando Mendoza was good. I ran into someone today who's worked with Fernando Mendoza down in Miami. and they were telling me, oh, you know, Miami did want him and Georgia, and we've talked about this on the show, Jay Crowe came on the show and explained the whole courtship and this person was telling me that like Kirby had him on the headsets and there was all sorts of, you know, they were really looking at here, hey, here's how you can help us.

But he looked at the situation and at that point, Garner Stockton hadn't even started the Sugar Bowl against Notre Dame yet. So he didn't know what the situation was going to be. Carson Beck had not into the transfer portal. Fernandez and didn't know what the situation was going to be. So he goes to Indiana. It's not like they went and plucked the best player off every team to create a super team. They took players that Kurt Zignetti knew were good and built a ridiculously disciplined

death machine of a football team. They don't make mistakes. When you make a mistake, they crush you. Like the Alabama fumble in the second quarter. they they turn that into a touchdown like i was it the game i was at an organ texas tech one team would throw an interception and the other team would fumble it back or vice versa this game the second alabama made any slight mistake indiana just cut their throat yeah um and you know albertelman do's looking scoot scoot a little bit you know he's out here just you know

moving the chains yeah brinno runs pretty well too i think i believe kurt kirkherstri called him a baby giraffe but he's a pretty good runner you know i'm kind of struggling with this um and i don't know if this is the time or the place to unpack uh cfp inclusion debates and we don't have to if you don't want to but if i'm a notre dame fan uh this is you're pretty pissed right now yeah yeah this is the one not none of the other games uh this is the one that i think bothers me and you know like here is the truth i made a statement and continue to make statements about miami's inclusion over Notre Dame and what was just. And if they would have taken Notre Dame over Alabama,

I think you would have had the same inconsistencies in that thought process as you would had you taken them over Miami. So I understand why Alabama was chosen. They had quality wins that Notre Dame did not possess. Hey, I'm going to go back to championship Saturday, the projected bracket I did. I left Bamma out. Yeah.

I had Notre Dame in. I, I think that that makes sense, but it also, if you really zoom out as inconsistent thinking, because if you think Miami deserve to go because of resume and resume only and not I test, then you couldn't, I mean, Alabama's resume was just going by my test. I was going by who I think thought might be in games in the playoff. Because here's the thing, like we had an Alabama fan named Joe,

and he actually has tweeted at us tonight to apologize because he was mad at us all week because we had both picked Indiana to cover in this game. And we were like, Joe, your team can't run and this team stuff's the run against teams that are actually good at running the ball. So what are they going to do to you?

And Joe's like, it'll be fine. And I think hope is not a strategy. Yeah, it'll be fine. It doesn't work. I mean, I've tried it'll be fine a lot of different ways in my life and that typically isn't. I mean, sometimes it works out. You know, like in high school and college,

tests tended to be okay. But if you actually like zoom out on Alabama's season, now that we have more context. You know, that four-game winning street that basically propped up their entire team all year. Only one win, I think, really stood the test of time. I mean, Vanderbilt was lost to Iowa. Iowa, which, by the way, Iowa took Indiana and Oregon to the wire. Are we sure Iowa shouldn't have been closer to the cut line?

Obviously, an impressive team. Tennessee lost to Illinois. So, like, some of these wins that were propping them up were probably, not as valuable and like that might be a discussion of are we ranking the teams properly to begin with but I don't want to start a conference war so um that said even if you take away conference affiliation and resume out of the picture Alabama's final showing in the in the regular season and championship weekend was not very promising and like if you were somebody who picked Alabama money line today you did that for one reason and one reason only it's because you

remember how good they were when that Nick Saban was there and that wasn't going to save him. I'm just, and I think we nailed it. This is the, this is the football team version of when somebody fires their coach and the people just name people they know, like, oh, go hire Jimbo Fisher. No, that the time has passed and the time of Alabama being that dominant has passed. Now, look, Alabama still has good players. Caleb is clearly a decent coach. Otherwise, every single school in opening wouldn't say they were going to hire him. The son's out at the Rose Bowl, Andy. I just think that that's important to acknowledge. Oh, it's dark at

at the Rose Bowl for one of those teams. It's very dark. The sun's out, though. I think you're going to get a nice little view of the mountains there. And, you know, it wouldn't be the Rose Bowl without a little sun. But it is very dark. That said, you know, somebody asked me on Twitter earlier today, Andy,

which team is in a more dire scenario, Ohio State, or Alabama? And I kind of chuckled at that. And it's like, my answer is it's a little. But I know, but it's not about comparing the two. It's like both teams invest mightily and heavily in being good at college football, and they both will probably be very good at college football as a result of those investments into the future. Like, I don't know if like this, like, do you, do you take, this is, anytime Alabama.

This is this team by three, Ari. This is, this is a referendum on how do you look versus the best team in the country. No, that's not, state lost by three and Alabama's losing by 35. Yes. I'm not trying to compare Bama in Ohio State. That wasn't my point. My point more so was, okay, they're taking these unders hit. Let's party.

My point is this team will continue to compete at a high level because it will invest in a high level. Like I don't know if I watch this game and go Alabama's program is dead. Like that's not it. But it feels like because of Nick Saban, every single time Alabama loses, we feel the need. Not we. I think everybody feels the need to do a huge autopsy. on what happened and what it means moving forward. Like Ohio State lost on Friday night,

and I didn't leave the building thinking, well, Ohio State's entire program is going to fall apart. It's just they lost to a good team. It's because of Ohio State didn't get its doors blown off either. So how dire do you think this is for Bama then? Like, let's have a real conversation about that. Dyer enough to, like, you're not firing the coach. Caitlin abhor's fine.

He's not going anywhere. He's not going to be. By the way, for the first time. I would smile now if I were Kurt Signity to. By the way, that's the last mile we're going to see until probably after the Oregon game. But, no, I wouldn't fire, you're not firing Kaelin Dabor. His buyouts enormous.

Now, if I agreed to give Kail and DeBore more money and he hasn't signed that yet, I'm reneging on that agreement. I'll be like, you can coach with the contract you have, sir. Yeah. If you don't like it, you can leave. I'm doing my best here with my phone while also being live to take a picture of the smirk that Kurt Signetti made to the camera for those not watching. That one's going to go viral shortly because he kind of like knew the camera was

there and was looking into the camera and like Kurt Signetti I think is a master of body language and facial expression he communicates quite a bit without like he and he's somebody who says a lot of interesting things he tends to communicate more with nonverbal communication and he does it quite effectively

but like yeah this is a team that can win the national title right we knew that coming into it but like now I mean how many win it is the favorite to win the national title they're the one seed I don't know that that that BEDMGM has set a line yet on the Indiana Oregon game in the Peach Bowl, but they played once. Indiana beat them

in Eugene. And I'm guessing Indiana is going to be a five or six-point favorite. Yeah. How many of these games do you think it's going to take? Because people didn't take the Ohio State win seriously. They just said Ohio State stinks after it. Is this the game where people finally understand that Indiana's good? Or is there still going to be more. people who are like, ah, it's Indiana. Like how many times? If you don't think Indiana's good now, you're just stupid. Yeah. You're, you're just trying to be

argumentative. Yeah, I agree with that. Man, I cannot believe this. Sun's out. Pasadena, Indiana is moving on. We have a rematch, right? Am I thinking about the bracket correctly? Oregon and Indiana. We do have a rematch. Yes, Oregon Indiana. Like I said, just

just a minute ago, Indiana went to Eugene and beat Oregon. Like, through a pick six and still won the game in Eugene. Andy, read that super chat. Okay. Jay Cardi 29 says if you look at recruiting rankings, the SEC is still getting elite players in the trenches,

but when I watch these games, the SEC is falling behind in the trenches. Is that wholly coaching, specifically offensive and defensive line coaching? I don't think it's all coaching because it's they are paying, especially D-line coaches. I mean, I did the numbers, it was a couple of years ago, so I don't know the exact

number right now. There was a point where there were six million dollar defensive line coaches in the SEC. And there's some really good ones. Like, Tray Scott at Georgia is excellent. You know, there are a number of really good teachers of defensive line and offensive line play. But I will say what a lot of these schools are doing is they are taking guys out of the portal who are older and plugging them in and they are just better.

Or like Oregon, going and getting somebody's best offensive. linemen, taking somebody's best offensive linemen off their roster. They did that with Nevada, but they also did that with USC this year. Yeah. And I also wonder, Andy, too, if, like, we should be giving more credit to some of these G5 teams. I know last week was kind of like a

but, like, if you take the nine, 10 best players off of JMU's team. Ari, imagine the James Madison players that Signetti took were still on JMU when they played Oregon. Yeah, they might have won. They might win the game. Yeah. Oh, you know who else is on Indiana now?

Pat Coogan, four quarters of FU football. It was a starting center on Notre Dame last year, and Ashton Craig came back, he got healthy. They wanted to start some younger guys, too, or at least give them a look to start. So Pat Coogan kind of was the odd man out in that shuffle, ends up transferring to Indiana, and now he's going to the semis,

has a chance to go to the national title game. They've done a really good job putting this roster together. Yeah, and it's going to be a real treat to continue to watch them to go. like Fernando Mendoza, 14 to 16 for 192 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions in this game. Man, it was just a thorough domination. I don't even know where you would even begin to criticize them. And maybe it's just when a better team plays a team that, you know, you can't compete,

then that's what happens. Yeah, Alabama was a highly flawed team. Like, if you, of the teams that were left in the eight, I would say Alabama had the most flaws. Yeah. You know, Texas tech's offense, not very good. But I would say that they had the most flaws. You know, Ole Miss's defense, we'll see. I mean, we'll see how they play against Georgia.

They didn't play very well against Georgia the first time. But Indiana, Georgia, Miami or Ohio State, and Miami happened to win the game. But I would have been fine, you know, comfortable predicting any of those teams to win the national title, comfortable predicting Oregon to possibly win the national title, comfortable predicting Georgia. I mean, I think we might really have the best four when all said and done. Yeah. Yeah, we do.

And that's what this tournament's going to do. It's going to weed it out, right? That's what it's going to do. You have some mad matchups. You have some blowouts. But you know what, man? Like, we got a blowout here and it was an SEC team. Blowouts are going to happen.

It's a part of the sport. Is this mean the SEC should make the playoff? I'm going to duck here. No. Because there's half the chats to be like, yes, it does. I mean, we are going to make a semifinal where the only SEC team that advanced did so by beating another SEC team. Like they haven't won a team over a non-SEC opponent. Every SEC win in the playoff is over an SEC team.

And we'll continue that way into the semifinal. Whoever wins the Georgia Ole Miss game is going to have to beat Miami. And then they would have to beat the winner of Indiana, Oregon. So that, and that's the beauty of this thing. If you win, you earned it. There's no one who won it fluky. Like, you earned it if you want it. I know.

If Indiana wins the national title, dude, like beating Ohio State before the playoff and running the table through what they're going to have to run through is going to be quite the story. We haven't mentioned it yet, but if you watch the Instant Reaction Show from Texas Tech, Oregon, you remember, I told people in the press box of Texas Tech Oregon do not write the teams with a buy have lost every game in the college football playoff. Because by the time you file that story, Indiana might be up 21-0. it wasn't quite I think it was 24 nothing if anybody wrote it

if anybody wrote it was they were up 24 nothing when it got filed so yes a team of the buy has finally won the curse has been broken and I think that somebody I think Chris Vanini posted this

but I think that favorites and the gambling spreads were 5 and 2 through the or 5 and 1 or something through the first 6 like the betting Miami is Miami the only the only gambling spread

the upset yes I think think so the first five of them so um yeah no i mean this is all making sense but you know what i'm highly entertained and you know we have quite we have the feelings bowl coming up here in about an hour so uh that game starting in 45 minutes yeah lane kiffin said he's not going which that makes a chat i wanted the drama of lane kiffin going i know the old miss fans didn't but i did as as the viewer i wanted that i think the fact that it was a talking point for a few days gave him what he was probably looking for but it would have been good for us if he showed up

but hopefully we can just watch a good four-quarter game. It'd be nice to have a good four-quarter game. So, Ari, I have the Peach Bowl next week, and I'm excited about this game. I realize we've seen it once, but I think Oregon's evolved as a team since they played. I think Indiana is even better than when they played Oregon the first time. I can't wait for this game because I think either one of these teams

is capable of winning a national title. Yep, and I think that, you know, I don't know what the spread's going to be. probably be a three or four point deal here, and we're going to have a good big 10 banger on one side. Oh, for those who think that Ari and I will ever take a day off, we're not into the off-season schedule yet, by the way. We're not supposed to be doing Friday shows,

but we are doing a Friday show this week because the transfer portal opens tomorrow. And by tomorrow, I mean, midnight eastern time. So in four hours and 39 minutes, the transfer portal opens. Pete NACOS is not even going to sleep. Like, Pete NACOS is going to be running on, coffee and adrenaline and so we're going to have a show you want to do it live are you want to just do it live we'll do it live yeah let's do it live what so come join us come join us

at three o'clock eastern two o'clock central the transfer portal will have been open at that point for 15 hours so we'll have a little better idea if there are any surprise jump-ins well we'll start learning about that we'll start learning maybe about where some of these guys are going some of the ones that have already said they're entering. But we're also going to pick the two semifinal games. BetMGM will have lines for us on those games. They'll probably have those later tonight. And we're going to pick the Peach Bowl between Indiana and Oregon.

And then we will also pick the Fiesta Bowl between Miami and the winner of the upcoming Georgia Ole Miss game. So join us 3 o'clock on Friday on the On3 Sports YouTube page. We don't take days off. No days off. No, Pete certainly does. Awesome. I would love to take, I would love to take the credit of being the workhorse of the company, but I'll let you have that title. I had to get up very early to go pick up my credential, record a show, and then go to the Orange Bowl Media Day on Tuesday. So I actually got up at 4.45. I was on the road by 5 a.m. Pete Nakos, who lives in central time, so he's an hour behind where I was, is texting our group chat saying, I think the Chip Kelly to

Northwestern deal is about done. Yeah. At 4.30 in the morning, his time. It's unbelievable. So, yes, the transfer portal opening very, very soon. We'll have all the news on that. And also, we're going to pick the semifinal game. So join us 3 p.m.

Eastern Time Friday. But we still got one more tonight. We'll talk to you after the Sugar Bowl between Ole Miss and Georgia. Here's hoping we don't come you in the middle of the fourth quarter. Let's make, let's make it a good game, boys. Good game.